Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) was established in the year 1989 as an autonomous institute under the administrative control of Govt. of Odisha. In 2002, it was taken over by the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India. The Prime Minister of India Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee dedicated the institute to the nation in July 2003.
Institute of Life Sciences has a broad vision of carrying out high-quality multidisciplinary research in the area of life sciences. The goal is for overall development and betterment of human health, longevity, agriculture and environment. The stated mission of the institution is to work towards upliftment of the human society and generate skilled human resources for future India. These are achieved by undertaking cutting-edge research using state-of-the-art technologies in the fields of vector-borne diseases such as malaria and filaria, viral infections, cancer biology, allergy and auto-immune disorders, genetic disorders, and agricultural productivity. Towards this, the institute has established necessary infrastructure, including research facilities, genomics and proteomics platforms, flow cytometry, imaging facilities, animal house, green-house, plant tissue culture and zebrafish facilities and high performance computing facility etc. with financial support from the Dept. of Biotechnology, Govt. of India.
The institute has been highly successful in recruiting faculties with high level of competence in research in fields like cell biology, gene function and regulation, structural biology, immunology, immuno-genomics, auto-immune diseases, plant immunity, plant biotechnology, environmental biotechnology, microbial biotechnology, developmental biology, nano-technology and nano-medicine, computational biology and bioinformatics. Recruitment of 26 highly skilled faculties, about 80% of them with considerable expertise in relevant fields and with practical experience gained from internationally reputed research laboratories outside India, has added vibrancy and vitality to the institute’s research mandate. Nearly 50% of the faculties have been appointed in the last 5 years.